A lot of people out there are afraid to use the pronoun “me.” I think the aversion must start in elementary school, when you proudly declare “Me and Gloria are best friends!” and your mom shakes her head and says, “Gloria and I are best friends.”
Mom is right because in that instance “I” is a subject. However, “me” is correct when you need an object.
Here are some examples of how to use “I” and “me” correctly:
*Gloria and Maria are in charge of the team *Gloria and I are in charge of the team (CORRECT) *Gloria and me are in charge of the team (INCORRECT)That was super obvious, right? How about these:
*That’s a great photo of Gloria and Maria *That’s a great photo of Gloria and me (CORRECT) *That’s a great photo of Gloria and I (INCORRECT)In this case “me” is the correct choice because it’s an object.
Confused? Remove Gloria from the sentence, and the answer becomes more obvious:
*That’s a great photo of me (CORRECT) *That’s a great photo of I (INCORRECT)Here are some more examples:
*You can call Gloria or Maria with that information *You can call Gloria or me with that information (CORRECT) *You can call Gloria or I with that information (INCORRECT)The correct choice here is “me” because it’s an object. Again, removing Gloria makes it more obvious:
*You can call me with that information (CORRECT) *You can call I with that information (INCORRECT)When you’re not sure whether to use “I” or “me,” ask yourself, Is this a subject or an object? And if you’re still not sure, get rid of the other person in the sentence, and you’ll know the answer. (Sorry Gloria!)
-Maria
This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2016 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
